Drakaina
by eragon13579
Summary: The Drakaina have gone extinct and the Vali had hidden away, never to be seen again. This is what the world believed to be true. But, the Drakaina have returned with a vengeance, and the world will never be the same. Watch in awe as they retake their place in the world, and remind everyone of their power! Fem!Harry Creature!Harry Ruthless!Harry
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any ideas you recognize from another story. This story draws great influence from Miranda Flairgold's Second Chance at Life series (If you haven't read it, go do so; It's one of the best fanfictions I've ever read).**

 **Hey guys, the prologue of my new story/rewrite is here! The next actual chapter will be awhile, but I am posting an Origins of the Drakaina chapter to keep your interest up and introduce some new lore I've added to this story.**

"Lily, it's him! Take Azalea and run!" James Potter yelled as the front door to his house was blasted open by Voldemort himself. James lifted his wand to defend himself and his family, but was cut down by the green light of the killing curse before he could get a spell off.

Meanwhile, Lily rushed upstairs to the nursery and grabbed Azalea, preparing to apparate only to discover anti-apparation wards had been set up without them noticing. She clutched her crying baby to her chest and silently prayed for everything to turn out alright for her darling little girl. Suddenly, the door to the nursery was blasted open and Voldemort stood menacingly in the doorway.

Lily instantly began begging for her daughter's life. "Please, not Azalea! Take me instead!" She pleaded desperately. Voldemort glared coldly and ordered "Stand aside woman." Lily shook her head wildly and offered her life for her daughter's life a second time. Voldemort's eyes narrowed and he again ordered "Stand aside or die!" Lily shook her head, tears pouring down her cheeks and offered her life in exchange for her daughter's for a third time.

Voldemort hissed angrily and raised his wand to point at the infuriating woman. "Avada Kedavra!" He yelled as a green light flew from his wand to hit the desperate woman. Unseen in his anger, a golden glow appeared around baby Azalea as her mother invoked ancient powers in her thrice offered sacrifice. Voldemort watched in smug satisfaction as the one prophecy had foretold contained the power to defeat him fell to the ground without her mother holding her up and began to cry.

He scoffed at the thought of the helpless baby ever being strong enough to defeat the strongest dark lord in history, conveniently ignoring the fact that he had once been an infant as well. He lowered his wand to aim at Azalea and incanted the spell that would eliminate the threat to his reign. "Avada Kedavra!"

The last thing he saw as he was ripped from his body to become a wraith was a strange golden glow manifesting around the girl to reflect his curse back at him. He didn't see Azalea's eyes glow with power as ancient magic worked furiously on her soul, altering it in accordance with the contract invoked by her mother.

He didn't see her eyes gain a reptilian slit and shine with ancient instincts as her body and magic reflected the changes within her soul.


	2. Origins of the Drakaina

**This chapter tells the origin story of the Drakaina and gives some teasers about their powers. Enjoy!**

In an old castle hidden from the world, an ancient vampire smiled grimly as he watched the urgent flash of a device designed to give alert to any new drakaina being formed in the world. The drakaina were a unique species of fae that were originally a minor and unnoticable Fae species called the Vali.

The Vali varied little from humans, only having extremely advanced control of their magic and an instinctive ability to sense magic. However, hundreds of thousands of years ago, the elemental dragon races were going extinct and decided that the Vali were their best chance of saving leaders of each elemental dragon race approached the Vali's clan head to form a magical contract that would bind the two species together forever.

It consisted of two things. First: The Vali would use their Necromancy and store the soul of any elemental dragon that died in a custom Soul Gem. Second: The contract would merge any elemental dragon's soul that was stored with a compatible Vali, creating a new race called the drakaina inherited the magics from both its previous forms, the extreme control of magic and advanced magical sensing from the Vali, and the elemental magics and telepathy of the dragon (elemental dragons used telepathy to communicate).

Over thousands of years the newly allied races, along with their cherished Drakaina grew in power and influence, to the awe of many other races. Many individuals grew envious and angry at the rise, however, and slowly, groups formed that were dedicated to eradicating the new stars of the Fae.

Over hundreds of years, the groups whittled away the numbers of Vali, Drakaina, and elemental dragons through various unsavory methods. Eventually, the Vali realized what was happening and urged the drakaina and elemental dragons to go into hiding with them. The drakaina having grown somewhat arrogant with their power and influence refused to hide themselves, wanting to demonstrate their power by counter attacking. They foolishly attacked the main base of their enemies and were killed to the last, taking the majority of their enemies with them.

The Vali, devastated and in shock, secreted themselves and the few remaining elemental dragon souls away in their ancient castles hidden throughout the world. They forged another magical contract with the elemental dragons, adding additional ways for the Vali and elemental dragons to merge as failsafes. Many were unlikely to happen, and more were believed so unlikely as to never occur.

But they added them, for a seer had foretold that an unlikely method would one day save the Drakaina race. For the next many thousands of years, no one saw any Vali, Drakaina, or elemental dragons. Eventually, some Vali became weary of hiding, and left their sanctuaries, finding that humans had become the most populous species.

Many decided to live with the humans and some even found love with them, having children and living peaceful lives. These children went on to have their own children, and those children had children. Eventually, the Vali's descendents forgot their own origins and thought themselves human. However, the Vali genes were infused with magic and overpowered the human genes, making any child born with Vali DNA a Vali.

The ancient Vali that had hidden away were never seen again, and their descendants had forgotten who they were. The Drakaina were forgotten, and their ancient enemies believed themselves successful and put down the torch of hatred. Their descendants were ignorant of what their ancestors had done. They had won. Or so they thought.


	3. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, long time no see! Sorry for the wait, life has been hectic for the past few months. Its a long story that you didn't come here to read and I don't want to make excuses. So, enjoy the chapter and hopefully leave a review to tell me what you think. Chapter lengths should start being longer after this, but I figured that for now, this will do to let you know I'm back. Oh, and one last thing. I currently am in need of a Beta reader so if you're interested, PM me.**

Chapter One

Raksis Kentalla smiled as he held the infant form of the newest drakaina in his arms. It wasn't a grim smile, but it wasn't a happy smile either. It was neither a smile of affection, nor a smile of cruelty. It was a smile of victory and satisfaction. Victory, for he was the one to obtain this fortuitous opportunity. Satisfaction for the promise of a shift in the balance of power throughout the magical world that would land in his favor.

Raksis was an ancient vampire, one of the oldest in fact. Even he didn't know how old he was, only that it numbered in the thousands of years. He was born when the memory of the drakaina was fading, but still demanded awe and fear to some degree. As a young vampire, he was fascinated at the concept of a magical race merging souls with a species as powerful and ancient as the elemental dragons. Elemental dragons were the first self-aware species that had ever existed on Earth.

When the Earth was forming, as each force of nature came to be, a corresponding Elemental Dragon race would come into existence. As gravity pulled rocks into a rough sphere and forced them to fuse together, Earth Elemental Dragons came to be. As an atmosphere formed around the ball of rock, Air Elemental Dragons came to be. As lakes, rivers, and oceans formed on the new planet, Water Elemental Dragons came to be. As friction between tectonic plates created heat, Fire Elemental Dragons came to be. Thus were the Elemental Dragons born to the Earth.

As beings formed by the birth of a new planet, magic granted them self-awareness and a primitive and primal form of intelligence. For hundreds of millions of years, Elemental Dragons reigned supreme on the Earth. However, inexplicably and unexpectedly, as new self-aware species developed over millions of years, the Elemental Dragons diminished in power and numbers.

First, the first form of Fae developed, eventually splintering off into the many species of Fae seen today. Next, primitive humans developed, eventually growing in intelligence over hundreds of thousands of years into the humans of today. Some humans were gifted with magic at some point, becoming the first human Mages. Finally, Vampires came to be. No one knows how the first Vampire was formed, whether it was a piece of magic gone wrong, natural evolution, or a deliberate creation, but whatever the case may be, Vampires are now a powerful race, one to be respected and feared. No one is sure why new self-aware races forming would cause the weakening of the Elemental Dragons, but weaken them it did. Raksis sighed as he realized that he had wandered in thought again.

It was a side-effect of being so old. Luckily he could control it when necessary, and it only happened when he was alone, or apparently when holding infant Drakaina left on doorsteps in the beginning of winter. He smiled again at the thought of how foolish the human mages were. He would take this infant Drakaina and raise it as his heir. Hopefully it had the talent for bloodmagic, his specialty form of magic. He continued to smile as he walked into a shadow and vanished, little Azalea Potter not to be seen by the humans for quite a few years.


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! Here's chapter three! This chapter serves as a kind of bridge between the prologue/chapter one and the start of the main story. I know that the scenes for each time skip are kind of short, but rest assured there will probably be more flashbacks in the future. These scenes mostly set the tone of Azalea's and Raksis' relationship. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Also, I still need a Beta reader. I probably won't post the next chapter until I get one, so if you're interested or know someone who might be interested please PM me.**

Chapter Three

 **4 years later…**

5 year old Azalea Potter tilted her head to the side curiously as her daddy chuckled to himself while reading a letter he had received. "Daddy? What's so funny?" Raksis turned to her with a slight smile on his face. "Nothing important daughter." Azalea pouted and glared at him which only served to make her look adorable. "Daddy! Tell me what's funny!" She demanded as imperiously as a five year old girl could. Raksis' smile widened a little and he replied "Now, now Azalea, it's impolite to pry into something someone doesn't want to tell you."

Azalea's pout grew as she huffed indignantly. "But… I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. The letter was just someone informing me that the human mages are in a panic trying to find you after finally noticing that you are not 'safely' in place with those dreadful mundanes. I merely find it amusing that they are just now noticing that you disappeared."

Azalea stopped pouting at receiving the answer she had demanded. Silence descended on the room as Raksis thought about his plans for the future. Not for long though as Azalea spoke up again shortly. "Daddy? When are you gonna teach me blood magic?" Raksis chuckled and said "In a couple years, after your magic has developed a little bit more. And when you are better able to focus through pain to accomplish a goal." Azalea huffed and pouted, but knew her daddy wouldn't budge on something like this.

Instead of continuing to demand bloodmagic lessons, she started her meditation routine that Raksis had taught her in order to learn mind magic. (The fact that it also helped keep a hyperactive little girl calm and quiet never crossed Raksis' mind, of course) As Azalea meditated, she became unnaturally still and her breathing slowed to a crawl. Her mind slowed and entered a peaceful trance and she could feel her magic flowing throughout her body.

Raksis smiled again as he observed his daughter meditating like he had taught her. He had unexpectedly grown attached to her over the last few years. He had never planned on becoming a surrogate father for the little girl, or actually developing feelings of affection for her. The original plan was for her to just be another form of power for him, but that only lasted for the first few months.

Over time she had wormed her way into his heart, and the plan to raise her without feeling grew less important. The plan evaporated completely the first time she called him daddy at age 2. He supposed this could cause some to call him soft (although not to his face for fear of his power), and some other vampires would certainly ridicule him for growing attached to a mortal. However, he had decided that he didn't care. For as long as she lived, he would allow himself to soften, just a little. When she inevitably died, he would again harden his heart and remind the world why he was so old. Until then, he would allow himself to care for this mortal child that he had come to love.

2 years later…

7 year old Azalea Potter winced as she finished cutting the last rune onto her body for the first blood magic ritual she had ever done. She had spent months preparing for this ritual, as a single mistake would kill her violently. For a month, she had practiced drawing the runes with ink and brush instead of a knife, until she and her daddy were satisfied with her ability to draw them perfectly every time. This piece of blood magic would be the first of a 5 part set that would enhance her senses.

This part enhanced her sense of hearing, allowing her to hear a pin drop from across a room even with a lot of background noise. It was a piece that required activation to work, instead of always being active. She lowered the ritual dagger she had just finished using with a sigh. She winced as her stiff muscles protested when she started to stand up.

The ritual had taken three hours, not because of the complexity of the runes, but because she was new at this and needed to take her time, lest she die horrifically for messing up a rune. She carefully reached down and wiped away the runes she had drawn on the ground with her own blood, as leaving the circle of runes without doing so would result in bad things. As she wiped them away, she drained the residual magic from them in order to safely end the ritual.

She was glad that daddy had finally allowed her to do her first blood magic piece, as she had been looking forward to it ever since he had used a set designed to enhance magical sensing in front of her. She exited the ritual room and walked to the shower specifically used for washing after a ritual. She showered and then put on a robe as she left the portion of her daddy's castle used for blood magic. She walked slowly towards his study, eager to inform him of her success.

He had tried to hide it, but he had been worried for weeks that she would make a mistake and he would lose her earlier than expected. She smiled softly at the thought of him worrying about her. She knew he wasn't her actual father, but she didn't care. He took care of her, and she loved him for it. She also knew he was a vampire, as she had seen him drinking blood and asked him why. She didn't care about that either, as he obviously wasn't intending on drinking her blood. She hoped he was proud of her for completing her first piece of blood magic.

3 years later…

10 year old Azalea Potter frowned as she extended her mind towards her daddy's mind. Her mental probe met his mind and found a wall formed around it that she couldn't pierce through no matter how hard she tried. She knew this from past experience of trying to break into his mind that way and failing miserably every time.

Instead, she stopped at the wall and allowed her probe to spread alongside it in the hopes of finding a weak point. Carefully examining the wall, her frown deepened as she found nothing of the sort. Her daddy had started teaching her mind magic at the age of 3, as her toddler self had been unconsciously extending her mind with the instinct she had inherited. As a drakaina, a Vali that had been merged with an Elemental Dragon, a species that used mind magic to communicate, she had instinctively been trying to do so herself.

Raksis had decided that it would be too dangerous to not teach her, and had immediately started her lessons in mind magic. She took to it easily, and he had her practice with prisoners with increasingly good mental strength until he started having her try to break into his mind. She had been trying unsuccessfully for 2 years now. Unknown to her, Raksis didn't expect her to ever succeed. The practice just increased the strength of her mind and taught her to be cunning instead of always using brute force. He would enjoy the look on her face when he finally told her.

6 years later…

16 year old Azalea Potter smiled happily at her daddy. Yes, she knew that she was a little old to still be calling her dad daddy, she just didn't care. That was what she had always called him, and was what she would always call him. Plus, it was hilarious to watch people's expressions when she called an ancient and powerful vampire 'daddy' and not get punished. The thought made her smile gain a slightly malicious feel to it and people around her edged away slowly. The smile widened.

A voice broke into her thoughts suddenly. "Azalea, what have I told you about scaring the mortals?" Azalea smirked at her daddy and sing-songed "But it's fun daddy! Watching them scurry away in fear of the psycho is always so amusing." Raksis sighed in exasperation, but let it go, knowing that arguing against her sadistic tendencies was useless from past experience. The thought made him slump slightly, depressed.

Here he was, an ancient and powerful vampire whose very presence caused many to cower in fear, and yet, he couldn't even get his teenage daughter to listen to him. He slumped further at the thought of what Sakiir would say if he found out about this. Azalea smirked at her daddy, well aware of his line of thought (not from mind magic, just from knowing him well).

Raksis sighed and changed the topic. "So, looking forward to attending Nox Academy?" Azalea nodded happily and replied "Of course! Just think of all the fun I'll have! I'll be able to torment the other students and get away with it because of Nox's noninterference policy in student interactions. Of course, I'll make sure to spread the pain around evenly, no need to single anyone out. That wouldn't be fair at all!"

Raksis sighed again, wondering what he had done in the past to deserve such a cheerily sadistic daughter. The creepy part was that the entire time she spoke about tormenting the other students, her smile didn't go away, it just got wider and a sadistic gleam appeared in her eyes if you knew how to look.

A feeling of pity for her future classmates emerged in him and he wondered if that was further proof that he had gone soft. No, he decided, just further proof of how sadistic his daughter could be. Now this sadism she possessed didn't mean she just enjoyed causing others physical pain, although she did enjoy doing so. She also enjoyed, even preferred, causing mental pain and playing mind games with people. She didn't often use her mental magic for this, no matter how it sounded.

Only if someone really pissed her off did she go that far. He shuddered as he thought of **that** incident. He wondered if the pedophile was still being treated for mental trauma in the hospital or not. His daughter hated rapists and pedophiles with a passion and anytime she encountered one, she made sure they could never function again, without leaving any evidence she caused it.

This pedophile had targeted her and that had only increased his punishment. He shook himself and left that train of thought, lest he start remembering what she did to him. He shuddered again. His daughter could be quite creative when the mood struck. Frighteningly so, indeed.


	5. Forms of Magic

**EDITS: Hey again guys, sorry for the false update, but I noticed a lot of mistakes in this upload that I missed! I was in a rush when I uploaded it for reasons I won't explain, so I figured that I would at least fix them now that I am no longer rushing. Here you go! BTW: The first episode of my modded Skyrim Uchiha Clan Madara's Path Playthrough and the first two episodes of my Pokemon Crystal Kaizo Playthrough are up on my Youtube channel. If you are interested, the channel is EragonDragonborn.**

 **Hey Guys! The next chapter is still in the works, but I figured that with all the forms of magic I have been and will be throwing at you, they could use some more explaining! Here you go! Let me know what you think!**

 **Blood Magic:** This magic utilizes elaborate rituals designed to give the user some kind of ability or enhancement. The rituals involve drawing runes in the user's own blood in diagrams unique to each ritual. The user then positions themselves in the center of the diagram and infuses the runes with magic to begin the ritual. Then, using a special knife, they cut runes into their skin, never lifting the knife off of their body until all of the runes are connected and complete. Every single blood magic ritual has the threat of death while attempting it. The more skilled and talented blood mages can mostly mitigate this threat, but it is always there.

Any rune drawn improperly kills you, lifting the knife early kills you, placing the runes in the wrong place on your body kills you, leaving the diagram without erasing it first kills you, etc… Blood magic is a highly individual and personal form of magic. A ritual designed to enhance strength that works perfectly for one person when performed properly may horribly kill another person even if they do it perfectly.

No two people draw the runes in the same place for the same ritual as another person does. They might be similar, but there will always be differences. This individualism makes blood magic a form of magic that requires intuition, intellect, determination, and the ability to know when to stop. Many people are not suited for more than the most basic blood magic.

Anyone attempting to learn blood magic must carefully gauge the danger level as they do rituals, and if they don't seem suited for it, they must stop if they wish to live. Attempting to force rituals WILL kill them. Blood magic is one of, if not the most, versatile forms of magic. There is a ritual or set of rituals for almost anything you would wish to do with magic. Increasing physical abilities, giving yourself night-vision, increasing magical control, sealing away an animagus form that you aren't ready for or is too powerful to be easily controlled, healing yourself, binding potions or spells to a person through their blood, improving reflexes, and many other things can be done with blood magic.

The only main drawbacks are- Time: Preparing for a ritual can take months, depending on how elaborate or complex it is. After doing a ritual, you have to wait for the magic to settle before starting to prepare for another one. The rituals themselves take hours to complete, depending again on complexity, but also on the skill of the blood mage. Pain: Cutting runes into your skin for hours can and has made people go insane from the pain and instinctive reaction against hurting yourself. Death: Most people that try to learn blood magic die at some point. Simple. These are the main drawbacks to using blood magic.

 **Thread Magic:** This magic utilizes threads made from various materials to perform magic. Thread magic is a lot like wand magic, in that in order to perform it you must make specific motions, or in this case knots, to do anything. Unlike blood magic, thread magic is not very individual. Most thread magic is standardized, only slight changes to knot placement between people occurs.

The main form of individualism for thread magic is the material a thread mage performs their magic with. This is a lot like how different mages have different wands, one must find the right wand, or in this case material, in order to get the best results. A lot of thread magic involves linking the magic to something and altering it by making knots in the thread.

For example, a thread mage might kill someone by linking their thread to them and altering the thread in order to stop their lungs from working. This is incredibly advanced however, and few people ever get to this level. On the other hand, thread magic wards are fairly easy to learn and are almost impossible to bypass when done properly.

By forming the wards with the thread and hiding the thread somewhere inside the wards, thread magic wards almost never fail to do their job. Forming wards with thread magic this way takes an experienced thread mage a few hours to do, assuming they perform it correctly. The downside is that the wards only last until the thread decays from time or from channeling a lot of magic. This makes thread magic wards an incredibly powerful, but short term magic.

The main drawbacks to thread magic are: Experience: Most people can learn thread magic to some degree, but in order to achieve anything worthwhile, one must either have a lot of natural talent or invest a lot of time into learning and practicing it. Short Term: Almost all thread magic is short term magic, as in it enacts a single spell or magic function, or forms a short term ward. In order to achieve long term thread magic uses, one must incorporate other forms of magic into the magic you are attempting. The most commonly used magic for this purpose is Gem magic, because you can store the thread magic function into a Gem for later usage.

 **Gem Magic:** Gem magic is a very potent form of magic, although it is fairly limited. Gem magic consists of storing magic into Gems in various ways. The better quality of gem you use and the more experienced in gem magic you are, the more magic that you output into the gem gets stored. A very skilled gem mage can store their entire pool of magic into a diamond (Although the diamond can probably store 12 times this amount, assuming the mage has an above average core) and draw it out later perfectly in the middle of combat to boost their spells.

Another way to use gem magic is to store a prepared spell into it and use it later. For example, a skilled gem mage might store an explosion spell into a garnet and throw it at an enemy while releasing the magic, forming an explosion on top of the enemy with little magical warning (Although it is hard to miss a rock flying at your head). An experienced gem mage will almost never lose a battle of attrition regarding magic, because they will have many gems with them brimming with magic and begging to be used.

The main drawbacks to gem magic are: Time: It takes time to build up a good supply of gems filled with magic, even if you empty your pool of magic into one every night. Money: Gem magic works better with high quality gems, which are expensive, even in the magical world. In fact, it is actually cheaper to buy them in the mundane world, because mundanes only like them for aesthetic purposes and to show wealth. Adding gem magic into the equation only makes them more expensive.

 **Sound Magic:** Sound Magic is a form of magic that uses, you guessed it, sound. Sound magic can be very powerful in skilled hands, but is normally not used in combat. Sound magic is usually utilized to establish dominance and control others through infusing your will into your voice with magic. This is mainly used by old vampires putting younger and disobedient vampires in their place. However, some illusion mages have been known to use sound to perform their illusions by basically hypnotizing their victims/enemies into the illusions with their voice.

The main drawbacks to using sound magic are: Limited Use: As stated, Sound magic is not very combat viable, and is therefore considered by many to be useless. (A very skilled sound magic user CAN just force a potential enemy to back down however) Danger: Unskilled use of sound magic may permanently damage the mage's vocal cords, rendering them mute.

 **Wand Magic:** Standard wand magic is a form of magic that is fairly potent, and incredibly versatile. While generally considered a starting point for any mage by more open minded magic users (disregarding those magic users who label everything aside from wand magic 'dark' and 'evil'), wand magic is nevertheless a useful form of magic.

Wand magic is the most standardized form of magic by far, with the only differences between usage being wands (material and length) and slight variations between wand movement and incantations. This makes wand magic easy to teach but makes it harder to stand out for being talented and performing well. Drawbacks to wand magic include: Wand: If you lose contact with your wand, you cannot perform your wand magic. End of story. Power: Wand magic relies solely on your own magical core, whereas some other forms of magic supplement it.

 **Wandless Magic:** Wandless magic is basically performing magical effects without a wand or other method of focus such as thread, gems, or runes. A wandless magic mage channels the magic through their body with their mind and magical control. Magical control must be really high in order to perform this, and the mage must be capable of, at the very least, connecting minds. A master mage at wandless magic can match a skilled wand mage in combat easily.

The main drawbacks to wandless magic are: Individualist: Wandless magic is the most individualist form of magic there is, and is therefore almost impossible to teach reliably. A mage learning wandless magic must rely mostly on themselves. Power: Without something to channel their magic, a wandless magic mage wastes a lot of their power when enacting their magic, unless they have incredible control over it.


	6. Chapter 4

**What's up guys! Sorry this chapter took so long, been really busy getting the house habitable again after living mostly in a hotel since my sewers backed up and flooded my house in early April. In other news, a month ago I started a Youtube channel mostly for Let's Plays called EragonDragonborn and currently have a Modded Skyrim (Uchiha Clan-Madara's Path) Playthrough, a Pokemon Crystal Kaizo Playthrough, a Tomb Raider Livestream/Playthrough series, and a lot of funny clips from livestreams that I do over on Twitch. My twitch is eragon1357910 by the way. Come check some of this stuff out if you're interested! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Chapter Four**

16 year old Azalea Kentalla sighed in boredom as she waited for the representative of Nox to arrive. Azalea was a beautiful girl, five feet 4 inches tall with almond shaped emerald green eyes and obsidian black hair. She had c-cup breasts that stood out well on her short and somewhat small frame, and a complimentary sized ass. Her hair fell in waves down to her mid back. She was wearing dark brown combat boots with knives hidden inside, black skinny jeans with a holster on the waist for a dagger, a black long sleeved shirt, black fingerless gloves with dense padding on the back of the hands and knuckles, her nails were painted black with little skulls in blood red, and her lips had black lipstick on them.

Just as she was beginning to plan how she was going to torture the representative when he finally arrived, a welcome distraction presented itself. She perked up as a girl sat down next to her in the cafe Azalea was currently gracing with her magnificent presence. The girl was a few inches taller than her Azalea noticed with a pout (EVERYONE was taller than her, Damnit!), and had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, and hazel brown eyes. She had b- (almost c-) cup breasts, with a slightly bigger ass than you would expect to go with them. She was wearing sneakers, navy blue skinny jeans, a short sleeved sky blue shirt, her nails were painted a darkish purple and she had subtle red lipstick on.

She smiled at Azalea as she waved a waiter over to the table. "Nox?" She asked simply. Azalea nodded with a smirk on her face. "Yep. Been waiting for like twenty minutes now. I'm Azalea Kentalla, by the way." Azalea and Raksis had decided that she would take his last name from now on, both to represent their relationship and hide who she had been to prevent the British mages from finding her. Azalea subtly scanned the newcomers mind and magic as she said this and waited for a response. 'Human. Strong magic and decent mental shields for a human her age.' She concluded with approval.

She focused back on the conversation as the girl gave her reply. "Nice, I had hoped there would be someone to talk to while waiting. My name is Megan Heathsworth, nice to meet you." Azalea nodded and said "I know, waiting with company is always better than waiting alone." Megan smiled at her and started to say something before being interrupted by a smooth, male voice. "You guys here for Nox too? Me and Isaac are looking forward to the competition." They turned to the speaker as he talked. He was tall, almost 6 feet, and had short dark brown hair that seemed to consist of all curls. His eyes were black and something about them gave off an eerie feel if you looked closely. He was leanly muscled, and wore tight clothing to show this off. He was wearing black running shoes that had no laces, black leather pants, a chain belt with a skull shaped buckle, a black t-shirt covered with a black leather jacket, his nails were painted a dark red color, and he had earrings that looked like fangs in his ears. He smiled at them as he finished speaking, revealing his fangs.

Next to him stood another guy who was a few inches shorter than him. He had short brown hair that curled slightly and dark brown eyes that had the same eerie feel as the first guy. He was built stockier though, with broader shoulders and slightly bigger muscles that were slightly hidden by his slightly loose clothes. He was wearing grey running shoes without laces, dark blue jeans, a smoky grey long sleeved shirt, and had wide black bracelets clasped around forearms with metal ridges circling them. He was shaking his head in exasperation at the other guy, with a slight fond smile belying his amusement.

Azalea smirked at them and said "Yeah, we're here for Nox. I think the competition should be good too. I look forward to crushing it." The guy who had spoken laughed and replied "Someone's confident. Name's Isaac Veris, and this is my brother Liam. What classes do you plan on taking? I think I'm most looking forward to blood magic." Megan smiled and said "I'm Megan Heathsworth. I want to take thread magic, it sounds really useful and interesting." Azalea and the others nodded in agreement at her assessment of thread magic and Liam said "That's a good choice to make, but I am looking forward to mind magic myself."

Azalea frowned and asked "Why would a vampire want to take a class on mind magic? I thought vampires naturally developed telepathy as they grew in power and experience." Liam smiled good naturedly and said "We do, but I want to learn how to direct it the way that mortals do in order to better combat mortal mind magic. Not all vampires rely solely on our natural abilities to survive, you know." Azalea blushed slightly before shaking it off and exclaiming "That's cool! So you're one of those people who never stops looking for ways to improve themselves and get stronger?"

Liam's eyes widened slightly taken aback a little by her outburst and conclusion, but Isaac laughed and smirked deviously at him. "She's already got you all figured out, eh Liam? Better watch your back around her man!" Liam frowned slightly in consternation and Azalea smirked at him mischievously. "Nervous Liam? It's okay, I won't pick on you too much. I have standards after all!" Isaac burst out laughing and Megan put her hand over her mouth to try and hide her giggles. Liam just looked put out and demanded "What is that supposed to mean?" Azalea waved her hand and airily replied "Oh, you know, just that I can already tell you're easy pickings. I can find better targets to torment!"

Isaac's laughter doubled at this and Megan turned away in a futile attempt to disguise her hysterical giggling. Liam glared at Azalea before sending Isaac a betrayed look. Isaac just laughed harder, almost doubling over from the force of it and Megan had given up her attempts and burst into full blown laughter. Liam glared at Isaac before pushing him over, making him fall out of his chair. Isaac barely noticed and just kept laughing. Liam yelled "It's not that funny!" Isaac managed to wheeze out "Yes it is!" before laughter overtook him once again.

Megan had calmed down a little, but this sent her back into hysterical giggling and Liam gave a frustrated groan before glaring murderously at the cause of his plight of misery. Azalea winked at him with a smirk and said "I'm having a great time guys! We should do this more often." Liam's glare intensified as the laughter from the peanut gallery once again increased. "I hate you." "Love you too, sweetie."

This was the scene that the Nox Academy Recruiter walked into, before promptly turning around and walking away. "I'm not payed to deal with this shit." He muttered as he walked to the hotel stationed in the town. The prospective students would hopefully never find out how close they had been to a timely recruitment that day, lest Liam's hatred of Azalea increase dramatically. Meanwhile, the peanut gallery continue to laugh hysterically. "IT"S NOT THAT FUNNY!" Two voices immediately wheezed out "YES IT IS!" And the laughter returned again. Harder.

 **Once again, I am working on chapter length, but it HAS been a month since the last chapter, so I figured I would post a short chapter for now and work on longer chapters when I get more time to write.**


	7. Chapter 5

**What's up guys, I'm back with another chapter of Drakaina for you! This chapter came a littler later than I wanted, but I've been dealing with some house projects that have been long overdue to be done. (Cleaning the gutters is a horrible and disgusting job. Do you know what's in a gutter? It's 60% dirt, 30% bird shit, 8% leaves, and 2% bugs. Horrible combination!) Anyway, I want to start having longer chapters (I'm aiming for 5k-10k each), but this chapter was at a good stopping point, and if I waited for it to be longer before posting, it would take a couple weeks extra.**

 **Also, I wanted to thank everyone who has left a review, favorited, or followed this story, your support is greatly appreciated! It keeps me going!**

Azalea smiled happily as she walked down from the hotel she had stayed at while waiting for the recruiter from Nox to arrive in the town. After they had finished laughing at Liam yesterday, the group had continued talking about what they expected to enjoy at Nox. Isaac looked forward to Blood magic, Megan looked forward to Thread magic, Liam looked forward to Mind magic, and Azalea looked forward to Sound magic. She hadn't mentioned this to the others, but the reason she looked forward to that class was that it was a magic she had never tried before, and was different from the magics she did know.

Thanks to her daddy, she was already approaching a mastery in Blood magic, set on a path to become the third youngest Blood Mage in history. Her Mind magic was at a level that most vampires didn't achieve until they approached the century mark of age, thanks to her Drakaina heritage and dedicated training with her daddy. Raksis had said her wand magic was at about an average auro trainee level, except for the fact that she knew many more spells than one would be expected to know.

She could do limited wandless magic, at this point it was pretty much just telekinesis and a few other similar uses. She knew enough Gem magic to store magic in a garnet and withdraw it later, with a 60% reduction in amount (The better the Gem Mage and gem quality, the less reduction occurs), but nothing else. She knew no thread magic at all, and was also looking forward to that class, it was just outshined by the Sound magic class in her mind. All-in-all, she was pretty happy with her skills in magic, and Raksis was as well.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she entered the Cafe that they had hung out in yesterday and headed to a table to sit down. A waiter came almost immediately, since almost no one was awake and at a cafe at 6 in the morning. She ordered a coffee with one cream and three sugars and pulled out a book to read. The book she had chosen to read this morning was a detailed explanation of necromancy and the use of it.

There were two types of necromancers, and their names were misleading. First, there were White Necromancers, who practice, obviously, White Necromancy. White Necromancers perform Necromancy by using animal and human sacrifices. They rely on the pain and death of others in their rituals. Second, there were Black Necromancers, who practice Black Necromancy. Black Necromancers perform Necromancy using their own pain, their own blood, and their own life force in their rituals.

Aside from how they operate, there are other differences between these two types of Necromancy. Black Necromancy takes longer to learn, the rituals take longer to perform, and the rituals are limited by the physical and magical ability of the Necromancer to withstand the strength of the magic they are attempting to use.

This might make you think that White Necromancy is stronger, but it is in fact weaker. White Necromancy doesn't last for very long and can be disrupted or broken easily. It is easier to lose control of the magic, and it is more limited in scope. There is also the risk of killing too many people in too short of a time span, and having angry souls out for your head. Black Necromancy can do more, reach further, and is more secure. Also, a Black Necromancer is usually more powerful than a White Necromancer. However, there are Grey Necromancers who can use all the abilities of both sides of Necromancy, they are just really rare.

As engrossed as she was in reading her book, she still didn't miss it when Isaac and Liam started approaching her table. As they neared the table and made to greet her, she looked up and exclaimed "Good morning guys! Have a good night sleep to prepare for the day? The recruiter from Nox should be here today!" Isaac and Liam shared a look of dismay and Isaac groaned "Oh no! You're one of those morning people aren't you?"

Azalea laughed and said "No, I'm just excited to go to Nox. Normally I can't stand the mornings. Plus I already drank half my coffee!" Liam nodded before eying her book curiously. "What are you reading? That's a pretty thick book." Azalea smiled and replied "It's a book on Necromancy. So far it's explained the two types of Necromancy and their pros and cons. It's pretty interesting!" Isaac suddenly looked interested and asked "Oh? Looking to become a Necromancer are you?"

Azalea smirked and said "Maybe. Why the sudden interest?" Isaac replied "That means you're going to have to take Blood magic as one of your classes. Almost everyone needs at least some Blood magic sets in order to do Necromancy. There's next to no exceptions, in fact I have never even heard of an exception." Azalea smirked and said "I am already approaching a mastery in Blood magic. My daddy says I'm going to be the third youngest Blood Mage in history."

Isaac and Liam gaped at her incredulously and Liam exclaimed "But you haven't even gone to Nox yet! How can you be approaching mastery of a subject you've never taken?" Isaac nodded frantically in agreement. Azalea smiled happily and said "My daddy taught me Blood Magic!" Isaac slowly asked "Who exactly is your father?" Azalea smirked deviously and replied "Raksis Kentalla." Isaac fainted on the spot and Liam's eyes widened dramatically and he looked like he was about to faint. "Your father is Raksis Kentalla! But you're not a vampire!"

Azalea laughed at them and said "Daddy adopted me when I was a year old and my parents were murdered. He said my race had a lot of potential!" Liam gathered himself and said "I thought you were a human. What race are you?" "Azalea happily answered "I'm a Drakaina!" Liam fainted. Azalea paused, having expected a clueless reaction, before shrugging it off and laughing devilishly.

"What happened to these two?" Megan asked as she sat down at the table cautiously. Azalea smirked and said "Oh, just some shocking news that they hadn't expected is all. How was your night? I had an absolutely lovely bath at my hotel!" Megan looked at the two vampires again with considering eyes and then visibly decided to let it go. "My night was fine I guess. I had a hard time getting to sleep, I was so excited though!"

Azalea smiled and said "I think we're all excited for Nox, if only that damn representative would show up!" A smooth male voice interrupted their conversation here and said "Now, that's hardly any way to talk about someone who came all this way to tell you how to get to your prospective new school is it?" Azalea and Megan turned to see a tall, asian man standing there with a slouch and hands stuffed lazily in his pockets.

He had dark brown hair that looked barely combed, slanted hazel eyes that practically oozed laziness, his ears were pierced with polished black fang earrings, and he was wearing black pants, a light grey t-shirt, dark grey shoes, and an unbuttoned black jacket. His lips were turned up in a lazy half smirk as he directed his gaze as the two vampires that were just now gaining consciousness. "What's up with them?" He asked with an inexplicable combination of emotions consisting of boredness and slight amusement in his voice.

Azalea and Megan looked at each other with disbelief in their eyes, astonished that this was Nox's representative. Azalea then looked at the vampires with a smirk, regaining her sense of humour and said "When Isaac asked who my Daddy is, I told him." Megan and the man exchanged confused looks before the man shrugged and said "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Hitoshi Nara, the Professor of Thread Magic at Nox Academy." Megan squealed slightly and exclaimed "Really? That's the class I look forward to the most! I can't wait for the first lesson!"

Professor Nara glanced at her, shrugged and said "That's cool. So anyway, I was *ahem* volunteered to be the representative of Nox this year against my will and then threatened into following through with it." He said before muttering *Troublesome women* and then continuing like he hadn't said anything. "So, the way this works is that in order to get into Nox Academy, you have to prove that you have the appropriate level of skill that we require. To facilitate this, you will be portkeyed to the beginning of a trail that leads to the Academy, where you will proceed to make your way past all the challenges or fail spectacularly. You may form a group, but groups may have no more than 6 people. If you make it to the Academy in less than one week, you pass the enrollment exam and can attend the Academy.

If not, you will be ejected from the trail and are forbidden from the Academy unless you take the exam again next year and pass. Any questions?" The group looked at each other (The vampires having been awake since he introduced himself) and Megan asked "What kind of challenges are there going to be?" Professor Nara smirked and said "A wide variety that will manage to test your abilities quite effectively."

Megan frowned at the non-answer and Azalea smirked at the prospective challenge, while the brothers looked at each other and grinned. The professor gave another half-smirk and lazily inquired "Any other questions?" Azalea looked at him and asked "Are there any restrictions on familiars that we can bring?" Professor Nara gave a slightly curious look and answered lazily "The only rule is that if you can't control it to the point that it becomes a big problem, we will control it for you by any means necessary. Other than that, you may bring whatever familiar you wish."

Azalea smiled happily at his response and the brothers grinned at each other. Megan looked at Azalea curiously and asked "What familiar do you have that would make that a concern?" Azalea smirked and responded "A quetzalcoatl." Megan gasped and the brothers turned to her with impressed looks on their faces. Quetzalcoatls were a magical species of snake that had feathered wings that allowed them to fly. They had the second most poisonous snake venom in existence, after basilisks, and like basilisks were extremely long-lived and never stopped growing.

However, quetzalcoatls grew at a slower rate compared to basilisks, where a ten year old basilisk might be 15 feet long and 5 feet thick, a ten year old quetzalcoatl might be 5 feet long and 1 foot thick. Also, quetzalcoatls were famed for their innate mind magic, for they hunted by invading their prey's mind and overwhelming it, allowing them to hunt easily and efficiently.

However, few people ever manage to tame a quetzalcoatl, for they are highly aggressive and hate staying in one place for too long. There are many horror stories of what happens to people who try to tame them, and consequently, few people try nowadays. Azalea grinned smugly at their responses, neglecting to mention that the reason that she had managed to 'tame' her quetzalcoatl was because she was a parselmouth and had befriended him at the age of 7.

He mostly stayed with her, but went on hunting trips fairly often to satisfy his instinctive need to roam freely. In her (Not so) humble opinion, being a parselmouth was awesome. Long ago, there was a healer of unparalleled skill named Aesculapius who wanted to gift his skill with healing to newborn mages. After many failed experiments, he finally managed to bind his skill at healing so that it would randomly be gifted to newborn mages.

Then he realized the problem he now had, that is, how was he, or anyone, supposed to know what mages had inherited his gift? The gift he had managed to bestow upon random newborn mages turned out to be very fragile, shattering if the mage went through trauma early in life or needed to use it at a young age. After pondering this question, he decided to add to his binding magic some kind of symbolic magic that would allow people to know which newborns needed to be protected and sheltered so as to properly develop their gift of healing magic.

Thus, he took the ability to speak to serpents that he had created early in life for unrelated reasons, and bound it to the healing gift to announce all newborn mages that inherited the gift to all. This had the unexpected side-effect of warping his gift so that magic, and especially healing magic, worked better when spoken in parseltongue for those who inherited his gift. Spells performed using parselmagic, as it came to be called, were naturally more powerful than their original forms, and healing parselmagic could heal virtually everything but death in the hands of a skilled parselmouth.

This was only half of the reason she loved being a parselmouth however, the other half being debatably even cooler. At some point, a group of parselmouths got together and decided that they wanted to share their knowledge with all other parselmouths. After many years of experiments and researching how Aesculapius had originally created the gift, they managed to create and bind a repository of knowledge dealing with parselmagic, and information pertaining to snakes to the gift. However, a parselmouth with a broken gift could not fully access this repository, making it even more vital that young parselmouths be protected and sheltered from harm.

Over time, most people forgot the origins of parselmouths and after Salazar Slytherin became an infamous Dark Wizard known for being a parselmouth, it started getting a bad reputation in European Countries for being a sign of dark magic. Other countries, like India, where even a parselmouth without the healing portion of their gift can do great good by convincing snakes in the surrounding areas of towns and cities not to attack humans, scoffed at this notion and revered parselmouths as very important members of the community.

Azalea had learned a lot from the repository of knowledge, and her healing gift had remained intact throughout her childhood and was now stable for life. The only time where she might have been at risk was when Voldemort attacked her when she was an infant, but that had been avoided by the process that turned her into a Drakaina.

One might think that her blood magic rituals would put her at risk, but they were planned rituals performed in controlled environments and the only way for them to risk her healing gift is for one to go wrong, most likely horribly as is most often the case when blood magic rituals go wrong. She had also done a blood magic set that allowed her to direct her healing gift to heal her body without specific spells, just by infusing the injured area with it.

Normally, when someone received major injuries and needed healing, they had to get someone else to do it as a lot of the standard healing spells couldn't be used on yourself. There were exceptions, and a lot of minor healing spells didn't have that problem, but for injuries like major bone breaks, deep gashes, anything to do with the brain, organs, heart, or spinal cord, you needed someone else to heal you unless you had a non-standard method of healing. She had decided that she didn't like having to rely on others for healing unless she had to and done a lot of research before finding that blood magic set in a book written by a blood mage that had been a parselmouth as well.

He had invented it after he had been attacked and left for dead by bandits (mages), and only survived because he got lucky and a good samaritan found him dying on the side of the road and happened to be a somewhat decent healer, good enough to patch him up enough to survive being transported and take him to a better healer to make sure he lived.

The set was composed of three rituals, one to allow her to feel and direct specifically the healing portion of her magic, one to allow it to be used without specific spells, and one to allow it to be used on herself. The set was a small one (amount of rituals in a set determines size), but it had been amongst the most difficult she had yet done.

The set was intended for a blood mage the highest official rank of blood magic users, and as such there were a plethora of prerequisites to be able to perform the rituals. She had found the set when she was 12 and spent the next 2 years performing various rituals in preparation for this set. The actual set itself took three months, one ritual at the start of the month, then a month of recovering and letting the ritual magic stabilize before performing the next one.

After it was done, she had what amounted to a regeneration factor, as long as she had enough magic to do it, she could heal most wounds within a matter of seconds, major injuries taking anywhere from a minute to the longest time it had taken her to heal something (she had made a mistake while trying out a new spell she had found and blown herself up, leaving her with horrible burns, some broken bones, and and a concussion), 1 hours and 8 minutes (She probably would have healed faster if she hadn't been low on reserves from the process of blowing herself up in the first place).

Azalea was pulled out of her thoughts as Professor Nara coughed lightly to get her attention and answered her question with a question of his own. "Can you control it?" Azalea smirked and replied in parseltongue "Yes, I can." Professor Nara looked shocked for a split second, before it was covered with his bored mask. "Oh? You're a parselmouth are you? Interesting...Very well, taking that into account, there should be no problems with you bringing your familiar to Nox."

Megan was looking impressed, and Liam was looking mildly interested, but not really concerned, and Isaac was looking at Azalea with a calculating glint in his eyes. Megan shook herself out of her current state and said with a hint of petulance "That's a really cool familiar. I have a crup named Rover." Liam smiled at her good naturedly and said "That's cool, crups are fiercely loyal to their owners." Professor Nara interrupted and said "Well, if there are no more questions, I'll leave you with the portkey to the trail and wish you good luck." No one spoke up with a question, so he did as he said and then left with a slow, ambling walk towards the hotel. After he was gone Azalea looked to the others with a smirk and asked/stated "So I guess that makes us a group right?" Isaac smirked back and nodded, Liam smiled calmly and gave his agreement, and Megan nodded her head agreeably. Azalea's smirk widened and she said "Good. Let's crush this test!" The others laughed and agreed with her sentiment as they walked back to the hotel to gather their stuff and prepare.

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think, any areas I could improve on or mistakes you could point out, or just feedback in general would be great!**

 **So, I'm slightly stumped on what familiars to give to Isaac and Liam. I'm tempted to just give them the familiars that the characters they're inspired from had, but I don't want to just copy everything either. So, any ideas on familiars for Isaac and Liam would be appreciated. Thanks!**


	8. Interlude 1: Dumbledore

**Hey guys! So, I wasn't really going to do this for awhile, but someone asked for it, so I decided to do it in parts over time. This marks the first Interlude dealing with the reaction's of the wizards and witches in Britain over Azalea disappearing. This one is when Dumbledore finds out, and the next one will be the staff meeting mentioned towards the end. They're not actual chapters, so they will probably tend to be short, sorry if this bothers you, but that's just the way it's going to be.**

 **Also, I wanted to thank everyone for the support! Thanks to everyone who followed or favorited the story, and big thanks to everyone who left a review! It really means a lot!**

Interlude 1:

 **1 year after Raksis 'adopted' Azalea:**

Dumbledore sighed as he sat down in his plush office chair in the Headmaster's quarters, and looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk wearily. "People think that being the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW means that I have too much power for one man, but all it really means is that I have too much paperwork to do." He grumbled irritably to himself as he searched his desk for his custom made quill that he had received as a Christmas gift a few years ago. "Aha!" He cried as he found it under a small pile of envelopes, proceeding to triumphantly grasp it in his hand. "Victory! You shall not elude me today, foul object!" He smugly decreed.

Chuckling to himself as he opened his ink pot and dipped the tip of the quill into it, he mused on what people would think if they knew that he, Albus Dumbledore, a powerful and respected wizard with too many damn titles, routinely spent upwards of twenty minutes looking for that bloody quill every time he went to his paperwork. He would dare say that Professor McGonagall's reaction would be especially amusing, he could just imagine the thinning lips and vicious stare she would direct his way if he told her that he wasted time on such tom-foolery.

Snickering slightly, he began to pull the first pile of paperwork in front of him to begin rejecti-he means considering, right, considering, the various proposals he frequently had to deal with. Frowning slightly at a proposal from Professor Snape to have a 7th year teach his younger classes, he hesitated slightly before scrawling a large denied over the top, with his signature going at the bottom. 'Really, Severus, it's their NEWT year, they don't have the time to teach your class.' He thought, shaking his head with a frown.

Reaching for the next proposal, he startled when his fire flared green and a head stuck out of the flames. "Ah, Mrs. Figg, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit today?" He asked cheerfully. Mrs. Figg hesitated before tentatively saying "Hello Albus, I'm afraid this visit isn't going to be pleasant. The girl's not here." Dumbledore paled a bit, quickly demanding "What do you mean she isn't there? I left her with the Dursley's myself a year ago!" Mrs. Figg cringed before replying "That's just it, I've never seen her with them, and when I questioned them about her, they had no idea what I was talking about. They didn't even know that James and Lily were dead!"

Albus paled to a sickly white as her statement suck in properly and seemed to age rapidly. "What have I done?" He wearily asked aloud, burying his face in his hands. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention Mrs. Figg, you may leave now." He managed to say, as grief at failing two of his greatest students and friends' child filled him. He didn't even notice as she left and the fire returned to normal. "Fawkes, my faithful friend, what should I do?" He asked, anguish filling his voice. His ever loyal companion trilled soothingly, and warmth filled him as he shored up his resolve. "Right, first things first, inform the staff. Then we'll decide what to do."

As he sent a house elf to fetch the staff, he could only desperately hope that wherever she was, Azalea Potter was safe.


	9. Chapter 6

**What's up guys, I'm back with another chapter of Drakaina! Now, it's not as long as I had been hoping it would be, but I just got a new job, and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write in the near future. The chapters are growing in length though, I'm trying! This chapter was supposed to go until they arrived at Nox, which is why there's such an awkward cut-off at the end. I don't plan to give up on writing this, but I have a lot on my plate at the moment, and unfortunately, writing fanfiction is a lower priority than my job, my social life, my youtube channel, and my fitness (I need to lose 60 pounds to reach my goal weight of 160). Sorry, but that's just the way it goes.**

 **Speaking of said youtube channel though, I have 4 series in the works right now. I have a modded skyrim playthrough that has 32 episodes so far, most of which are an hour long. I have a Pokemon Soul Silver Randomized Nuzlocke with 12 half-hour episodes. I have a Star Wars the Old Republic series with 13 half-hour episodes.**

 **Lastly, there's a new game, an MMORPG that's being developed and I'm a beta tester for it. I'm allowed to record and publicly post content, so when Closed Beta Testing Phase 2 starts, I will being posting a series of it. The game is called Revelation Online, and it looks absolutely amazing, with the best game graphics I've ever seen, and huge amounts of content. My YT channel is EragonDragonborn, and my Twitter is EragonDragonborn, Eragon1357910. Come check it out!**

 **Chapter 6**

"Talking"

'Thinking/Mental speech'

" _Parseltongue"_

Azalea, Isaac, Liam, and Megan all grouped around the portkey as the activation time for it approached, each making sure to lay a hand on it. Megan's crup was in her arms, looking at the vampires warily. It was a medium sized dog, that looked somewhat like a pug, but with two tails instead of one. Megan's family lived in a mage-only community and had gotten a license that allowed them to have a crup without cutting the tails off to a stub. The crup was chocolate colored with a few cream spots here and there, and it had silverish grey eyes that gleamed with intelligence. As the name Rover implied, it was male and it's tails were tipped a light grey color.

Sitting on Isaac's shoulder was a large bat with sinister looking red eyes, pitch black fur, and longer than normal talons.. It was a magical species of vampire bat that had a few abilities, such as growing up to four times its size, spitting fireballs, and the ability to blend in with the shadows to become unnoticable. Liam was holding a young black panther with dark blue eyes that were looking at Rover with a warning glint, as if anticipating trouble. It's paws were a dark grey color and it's claws were sheathed at the moment. Its tail was waving back in forth in mild agitation and its ears were perked up and listening carefully.

Wrapped around Azalea's shoulders was a quetzalcoatl that was about twenty years old, eleven feet long, and just shy of two feet thick. It had diamond patterned black and dark green scales, and about one-fourth of the way down its body from its head were a pair of large, feathered wings that were each about five feet long, giving it a wingspan of ten feet. Its eyes were an emerald green color that were only slightly darker than Azalea's, at first glance seeming identical. Its forked tongue was a bright red color and flickered out to taste the air once in awhile.

The portkey was a piece of grey cloth that was slightly frayed, as if it had been used many times. Isaac looked at the others with a challenging smirk and said "You guys ready for this?" Azalea scoffed and said "I've been ready, I'm not changing my mind now." Liam smiled and said "I'm as ready as you are Isaac, you know that." Megan smiled a bit nervously and said "I hope so, there's no turning back now." Liam gave a reassuring smile and said "Between the four of us, this will be a breeze, don't worry." Megan gave him a thankful look and gathered her resolve with fresh determination. The anticipated time arrived and with a flash, the portkey activated and transported them to the beginning of the testing trail. They arrived with a flash and separated as they gazed around the area they had landed in.

Nox Academy was located in a pocket dimension that was originally a copy of the entire central valley of California. (A pocket dimension is a place where a mage(s) created a copy of a portion of land and made a separate dimension that was linked the the main dimension in some way, a door that takes you there, a portal that you walk through, etc… A pocket dimension can be any size, but the difficulty to create one goes up with size. An average wand mage (depending on affinity) can only manage to make them up to the size of a small room, while an average thread magic user can manage to make them up to the size of a decent house.)

The mages that had created it had then warped the landscape to suit themselves, both in order to enjoy it more, and to prevent it from being merged back into the original landscape by making the copied land too different for that to be possible.

They created a massive mountain range to surround the valley, one that dwarfed the Rocky Mountains. Then, they divided the valley into sections, each section being transformed into a different type of landscape. They created a giant forest in the north-west portion. They created a slightly hilly meadow area with a large lake near the middle in the far north-east portion. South of the meadow, they created a wetland area that was a wetland year-round. (The forest was slightly larger than the combined sizes of the wetland and the meadow).

In the south-western portion of the land, they created a tropical rainforest that was slightly larger than the forest north of it. In the south-eastern portion of the land, they created a desert, that was slightly smaller than the forest north-west of it. After that, they populated each region with many indigenous species of magical and non-magical flora and fauna.

Nox Academy itself was a large fortress located in the middle of the land, in a large clearing where the four regions met that had been created as a grassy flat-land, with the intention of putting the school there. The fortress had multiple levels/floors, and looked imposing and impressive.

As they looked around, they saw that they were at the foot of a massive mountain range that spanned as far as the eye could see in both directions. The tops of the mountains were covered in snow, and there were many trees dotted along the entire range. Liam let out a low whistle and said "That's impressive, for sure."

He absent-mindedly let his panther down on the ground, where she began scenting the air and looking around, but staying close by. The others nodded in agreement as they gazed at the biggest mountain range they had ever seen. Megan frowned and asked "Which way do we go? Professor Nara only said to go where 'Four meet and become one', whatever that means." She put Rover down as she spoke and he began sniffing around the area without wandering too far.

Isaac hummed in thought and supplied "We can probably figure that out later, but I think we need to cross to the other side of those mountains. They're the only distinguishable landmark that I can see, and vampires have pretty sharp eyes, even in daylight." Azalea spoke up and said "I agree, but we need to make sure that we find a decent spot to make the trek up the mountains, we don't want to make it halfway up and then not be able to continue. I can have Volanti scope out a good area to make the climb." Liam nodded and said "That should work, let's do that. In the meantime let's take stock and assess our abilities and make plans to deal with any obstacles."

The others agreed and Azalea turned to her quetzalcoatl and hissed " _Volanti, I want you to fly to the mountains and find us a good path to cross over them to the other side."_ Volanti looked at her and hissed " _Very well, take care of yourself young Speaker. I will be most displeased if I return and find you injured or dead."_ Azalea smiled and replied " _I'll be fine, fly safely."_ Volanti uncurled himself from her shoulders and raised upper body above her head, unfurling his wings as he did so. He lunged towards the sky, taking flight and heading towards the mountains to scope out a good area to cross the mountains.

As they watched him fly away, Liam said "Ok, I'll go first. As a vampire, I have enhanced physical capabilities, telepathy, a regeneration factor that's boosted when I drink blood, nightvision, natural stealth ability, an affinity for blood magic, an affinity for necromancy, and a few other perks.

As for my personal abilities, I am really good at illusions, I know a lot of detection spells, I am talented with cutting spells, I can mind meld with Nyx, and I know a lot about magical creatures. Isaac you go next, please."

Isaac spoke up and said "Sure, I guess I can go next. I am also a vampire, so I have those perks too. Personally, I am really good at combat magic, I know a lot of stealth spells, I am talented at ice magic, and I know a lot about warding and ward breaking. Megan you wanna go next?"

Megan started and said "O-oh, me? Ok, ummmmm….well I'm a human, so no extra perks here. I am really good at transfiguration, I know a lot of tracking spells, I am talented at conjuration, I can mind meld with Rover, I'm good at knife throwing and fighting, and I know a lot about plants, both mundane and magical."

Azalea grinned and said "That just leaves me, I suppose. I'm a Fae, specifically a Fire Drakaina, which gives me some bonuses. I have enhanced physical capabilities, a large affinity for mind magic, an extreme affinity and predilection for fire magic, almost flawless magical control, innate magic sensing abilities, and a few other perks. As for my personal skills, I am a prodigy at blood magic, I am really good at healing, I know a lot of curses and counter curses, I am talented at explosion spells, I am a parselmouth and can use parselmagic, and I know a lot about poisons and venoms, both mundane and magical."

The others stared at her, astonished, both at the fact that she was a Fae, and at her abilities. Fae was the highest classification for many humanoid magical sentients, but was divided into sub-species for the most part. What most people thought of when they heard Fae, were the animal Fae.

Animal Fae were sentient magical animals that had a secondary humanoid form that they could transform into at will. They used this form when dealing with other magical sentients, because their base form usually communicated using a variation of Sound Magic unique to each species of Animal Fae.

Animal Fae usually had highly active primal instincts, making it a bad idea to mess with them, unless you knew that you were stronger and could defeat them. Of course, when fighting an Animal Fae, you probably want to make sure that their pack is not nearby, because to them, fighting with their pack against lesser numbers of enemies is not unfair, it's natural.

There are many other types of Fae as well, but the Animal Fae are the most numerous type, and many other types of Fae tend to stick to themselves unless otherwise required, making it easy to forget they existed. Other than Animal Fae, the most common type of Fae were the humanoids, species of Fae that developed separately from humans, but ended up being pretty similar with only a few key differences. The Vali were one such species, until they merged with the Elemental Dragons and became Drakaina.

What Fae didn't qualify for humanoid Fae were those species of Fae that developed separately from humans and ended up being vastly different, such as the Raknera species of Fae that were humanoid in that they stood on two legs, had two arms, and one head on their shoulders, but were distinctly bug like, with an extremely tough exoskeleton, the ability to shoot acid from their mouths, compound eyes, three fingers on each hand, and a few other unique features. They were one of species of Fae that were most different from humans and were a very war-like race, highly aggressive and proud.

So when Azalea said that she was a Fae, they were surprised because she seemed human. After the revelation that she was a Fae, they took a closer look at her, and noticed some things that should have told them she was Fae from the start. It was mostly small things, but they added up to paint a pretty clear picture.

Her features were perfectly symmetrical, with no blemishes to be found anywhere on her body. Her facial structure was slightly angular, giving her a regal and slightly inhuman air. Her ears were slightly pointed, a subtle thing, but noticeable if you looked closely. Her eyes gleamed with an inhuman glint, able to overlooked as her personality, when not combined with the rest.

Now that they had noticed these things, they wondered how they hadn't noticed in the first place. Azalea seemed to realize what they were thinking, and the answered the unasked question. "It's because I seem mostly human, and you thought I was human to begin with. Subconsciously, you were ignoring those things, individually giving excuses as to why each feature didn't mean anything. Once the idea that I wasn't human entered the equation, you stopped doing it, allowing you to take it all in at once and come to the correct conclusion."

The others nodded in understanding before the question that had been burning in Liam's mind ever since she had told him she was a Drakaina in the Cafe came to the forefront of his mind. Originally, he had written her statement off as a joke, because the Drakaina were extinct and she seemed human, but since she obviously wasn't, and had again asserted that she was a Drakaina, he had to ask.

"I thought the Drakaina went extinct a long time ago?" Liam asked in confusion. Azalea gave him a shocked look and exclaimed "How do you know about the Drakaina? I thought everyone had forgotten we existed!" Isaac snickered and said "Liam's a history buff, he's always reading old tomes and scrolls, it's his vice."

Liam gave him an annoyed look and said "Learning about history is not a vice, it's a hobby. And he's right, I learned about them in an old scroll a few years ago. Now, my question?" Azalea frowned slightly before shrugging and deciding that it wouldn't hurt to tell him what he wanted to know. "As far as I know, I'm the last one. I've never met or heard of any other Drakaina." Liam frowned thoughtfully and let the matter drop.

Megan frowned and spoke up. "I thought we were going to make plans to deal with any obstacles we come across." This snapped the others out of their thoughts as they realized that she was right.

Liam took the lead and said "Well, it seems like Isaac and Azalea are our heavy hitters for combat, while Megan and I fill the support role decently. For example, if we come across any magical creatures, I can identify them, and if we don't want to fight them, cast illusions to make sure they don't notice us. Also, if we come across any dangerous plants, Megan can tell us how to approach the problem safely."

The others nodded in agreement, agreeing with his strategies. Megan chimed in and said "I can also help distract any creatures we need to sneak past by transfiguring things into animals. I normally do it for combat purposes, but they will also make for a decent distraction for any magical creatures that are too dangerous for us to deal with." Liam nodded and said "Good, so we have creatures and plants covered between the two of us."

Azalea interjected "I have good magic sensing skills, so I can make sure to stay aware of our surroundings so that nothing sneaks up on us. I can also make sure to spread my mental awareness into the area around us to sense the minds of regular animals and anything or anyone that can suppress their magical signature." The others nodded and Liam said "Ok, so that covers sneak attacks, and will also alert us if we come across any other prospective students."

Isaac stated "I can cast some spells on us if we need to sneak past or up on something to make sure we stay unnoticed. I know enough spells to make sure nothing can see us, smell us, or hear us, and I know the notice-me-not spell to make it even harder to realize we're there."

Liam nodded thoughtfully and claimed "So, we have detection and stealth covered in multiple ways, we have plans for any creatures or plants that we encounter, and we are pretty combat capable. It seems all that's left is a method of finding the Academy, but between Azalea's quetzalcoatl, my ability to mind meld with Nyx, and Megan's ability to mind meld with Rover, we probably won't have too much trouble. We're all set, now we just need to wait for Azalea's quetzalcoatl. Speaking of, what's its name and gender?" The last sentence was directed at Azalea.

Azalea smiled and said "His name is Volanti, which is latin for flying. I thought it sounded like a good name, and he can fly so it fits."

Liam smiled and said "That's a good name, certainly better than what Isaac named his bat." Isaac scowled at Liam and protested loudly "Hey! I'll have you know that Shadow is an excellent name for a vampire bat!" Liam smirked and replied "Yes, such an excellent name that it's cliche and overused to the point that it's unoriginal." If glares could kill, Liam would be burning in hell-fire screaming that he was sorry in half a second from the sheer intensity of the glare Isaac was sending his way. Of course, since they can't, it merely made Liam smirk with an amused look in his eyes as he relished taunting his brother.

Isaac snarled murderously and made to attack Liam, but Azalea stepped in and said "Now's not the time Isaac, you can get revenge later, after we've passed this test." Isaac reluctantly backed down, but the look in his eyes said that he wouldn't forget his revenge anytime soon.

As the drama finished they settled down to wait for Volanti to return so that they could make their way over the mountains to find a path to the Academy. They were as prepared as they could be, and they seemed to have solutions to all potential problems, so they could banter and relax somewhat as they waited. They did make sure not to drop their guard though, who knows what to expect from a test being given by a school with Nox's reputation.

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Now, I have a request for you guys. I need oc ideas, as I'm sure you've noticed that this fic deals with an original setting with lots of new characters. So, what I want you to do, (If you're willing), is make up a character and post a review describing everything about them you can think of. I would like you to include species (Vampire, Human, Lion Fae, etc...), gender, physical description, general personality, skills and/or affinities, age, and whatever else you want the character to be. You don't have to be that specific, but the more specific you are, the more likely I'll use the character. Also, if I pick a character that doesn't have something listed for a point, I'll make it up myself, and you might not like what I come up with. With that said, I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with!**


	10. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **What's up guys? Eragon here with another chapter of Drakaina! First, I would like to thank everyone for their support of this story! Seriously, seeing people favorite, follow, and review this story never fails to make my day, it means a lot that people appreciate my writing.**

 **Second, I would like to apologize for the long wait for this chapter. I went through several months of hell at my work, trying to manage 5 eight hour closing shifts from 6:30 pm to 3 am a week with my schooling, workouts, and other hobbies. Eventually, I decided to cut my hours, about a month ago, and I have had more free time recently, which is why this chapter is now out :P**

 **So, enjoy this chapter, and let me know what you think!**

"Talking"

'Thinking/Mental speech'

" _Parseltongue"_

Azalea frowned in thought as she and the others waited for Volanti to come back with his findings. She was fiddling with a length of crimson metal, that looked somewhat like a sword handle without a blade, except instead of a standard guard, there were four small spikes (2 inches each) extending from the four directional points of the guard (forward, backward, left, right), and the pommel was four strips of the metal gripping a flawless spherical ruby around the size of a chicken's egg.

The metal was a special material called blood metal, a specially forged metal that was crucial for some forms of blood magic, such as weapons, armour, and special blood metal tattoos that could be enhancers for some blood magic sets or activators of special magical abilities. The metal was extremely durable, slightly harder than diamonds.

The handle she was holding was actually hollow, with only a slightly thin layer of blood metal for the casing. It was filled with a mixture of her blood and liquid blood metal. There was a blood magic ritual that could be performed on liquid blood metal that would change the conditions necessary for it to harden, from when cool, to when the blood mage that performed the ritual infused their magic into the metal and willed it to harden.

Though rare, there are blood magic rituals that didn't enhance or change the mage's body or magic, and instead focused its effects on a specific object that was brought into the ritual and had special runes painted on it with the mage's blood. These rituals were rare because they had very limited uses, and were generally only good for very specific purposes.

The top of the handle had a panel that opened when magic was channeled through a rune carved into the middle, if she specifically concentrated on opening it. This would allow the blood and liquid blood metal inside to come out freely, for the ultimate purpose of the handle as a weapon.

Azalea had come up with the idea after she went over the list of all the blood magic rituals she had done so far, about a year ago. One of the rituals allowed her to control her blood flow, even when the blood she's controlling isn't inside her body. As long as she can sense the blood nearby, she can control it. This one had been part of a set that allowed the blood mage to filter out toxins and other unwanted materials from their blood through exit points of the body, those being the wrists, the ankles, or the neck.

Generally, the only time a blood mage should filter blood by way of the neck was when it was the closest exit point and it was necessary to do it quickly instead of spending the time to direct the blood flow to a different exit point. This is because it was more dangerous to use the neck as an exit point than the others.

Another one she had done and therefore knew how to do, was a piece that you could perform on liquid blood metal to bind it to her blood. This meant that the blood metal went where the blood went, and that the blood and blood metal shared their properties between them at all times. If a change happened in the blood, it would be reflected in the blood metal, and vice versa.

The final piece of the puzzle was a ritual that all blood mages needed to perform to do higher level sets. This ritual allowed a mage to infuse fire magic into their blood and set it on fire at will. This was a necessary action in some advanced blood magic rituals, particularly ones involved with and/or performing Necromancy.

The intensity of the fire depended on the mage's success with the ritual, the amount of magic they could channel wandlessly, and their affinity with fire magic. Azalea, with her Drakaina influenced fire affinity, could set her blood on fire at temperatures that approach the surface of the sun's temperature. This was about 3 times the heat level of fiendfyre, the strongest fire magic spell that could be performed with only wand magic.

Her normal fire magic varied in heat level depending on how much magic she used to form it, but the fire she normally used in combat only reached about half the heat level of fiendfyre, for multiple reasons. First, most of the time she doesn't really _need_ her fire to get much hotter than that. Anything that it hit would most likely lose whatever part of it that the fire made contact with pretty quickly.

Second, shields that can block her fire were affected by how much magic was in the fire, not the temperature of it. Most of time, the amount of magic necessary to heat up her fire to up 4,500,000 degrees Fahrenheit (Half the heat level of fiendfyre), is enough to overpower 75% of the wand magic shields out there, and a lot of the ones that _could_ block it were obscure, and mostly not known except by people obsessed with knowledge and/or with access to large, old libraries.

However good her regular fire is, it's nothing compared to the temperatures her blood could now reach when infused with fire. Normally, having hot, fiery, blood would be absolutely useless in combat, but Azalea refused to accept that. She _had_ to find a way to weaponize it, her inner pyromaniac demanded it! After some trial and error, she found the perfect method of doing so.

That's where the handle comes in, of course. By combining those three rituals in this one object, she could now manipulate the mixture of blood and liquid blood metal into the forms of weapons.

Depending on the weapon she picked at any given moment, she could solidify the blood metal, which would transfer that property to her blood.

Then, she could set her blood on fire, and for example, have a blood/blood metal sword on fire, burning at 23,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Or she could make it a whip, and leave the blood metal in liquid form, using her control over her blood flow to maintain the whip's form and help direct it towards her target.

This was extremely effective for combat, but it was slightly negated by the fact that many more shields were capable of blocking it than her normal fire. This was because the amount of magic necessary to set her blood on fire was actually much less than the magic used to cast her normal fire, because of the way it was done.

Since she set her blood on fire using an ability she had gained through blood magic, specifically using a set greatly influenced by her affinity to fire and wandless magic ability, it was extremely cost effective magic-wise. It actually used more magic to cast an average blasting curse than it took to set her blood on fire and keep it that way for 5 minutes.

Unfortunately, this meant that since, generally, shields blocked based on how much magic was in an attack more than the properties of the attack, it was much easier to shield against than her more magic heavy fire attacks. This was slightly offset by the fact that she was delivering the attack via a physical method, making shields that only block magic much less effective.

Conjuring or transfiguring physical defenses wasn't that much better, since her weapon was made of a very hard metal, and was burning at a temperature that would quickly melt almost anything, allowing it to smash and melt through everything that most mages were capable of conjuring if they could conjure anything at all.

Transfigured defenses were a slightly better option, mostly because it cost less magic to transfigure something than it would to conjure the end result.

Only the very best transfiguration masters would be able to conjure/transfigure something effective at blocking her weapon, and even then they would have to spend much more magic conjuring the required materials, quickly turning the fight into a battle of speed and attrition. However, transfiguring things took slightly more time than conjuring due to the different process used. So, both transfiguration and conjuration had their own strengths and weaknesses compared to the other one.

Azalea was very proud of the way she had taken an ability widely regarded as just a stepping stone to better blood magic rituals and weaponized it with such effectiveness. Better yet, because of the very fact that it was unorthodox, it was that much better to use as an ace, having the advantage of surprise and anonymity.

Magical combat often required tactical thinking and strategy to win, even in one-on-one duels. In order to win, you must be able to block, avoid, deflect, etc…, most or all of the opponents spells and abilities, which required knowing or figuring out _how_ to do so with the spells/abilities the opponent was using.

If your opponent used a spell that was designed to pass through physical objects, and you had been using transfiguration to create physical defenses, you were probably screwed. A good counter strategy for that spell is to transfigure your defense, and then move to the side, throwing off their aim as well. Or, instead of only using physical defenses, mix it up, trying to use the best defense possible in a case-by-case manner.

This also demonstrated that to win, you also need to figure out patterns that your opponent tended to fall into, and the weaknesses to those patterns. And, in order to use those weaknesses to win, you needed to be _able_ to attack those weaknesses. For example, in the last example the winner won by using a spell that passed through physical objects. If they hadn't learned/designed that spell, they would have had to find another way to win, or it would have turned into a battle of attrition or a straight out loss.

This meant that her unique weaponized blood would be a great technique to use as an ace, especially because it used low amounts of magic.

Liam looked at the handle in her hand curiously, before asking what was going through his mind. "What is that for, Azalea?" Azalea looked up at him with a mysterious smile and replied "Oh, just something that might come in handy." Liam scoffed at the non-answer, but let the matter drop nonetheless.

As they waited for Volanti to get back from his scouting trip, they each settled down in various spots in the clearing, each with something to do.

Azalea had sat down in the shade of a nearby tree and pulled out the book on necromancy she had been reading. Liam had settled down with Nyx, dangling a bit of string for him to chase.

Isaac had decided to take a nap, pulling out some sunglasses to block out the light. Megan had pulled out a stuffed toy and started playing fetch with Rover. They whiled the time away, until finally Volanti returned about 20 minutes later, and wrapped himself around Azalea's shoulders. He promptly closed his eyes, ignoring them completely. Azalea rolled her eyes and hissed " _Well? Did you find out anything about where we should head?"_

Volanti lazily opened one eye and responded " _There is a mountain pass about a mile away that seems like a good place for you wingless two-legs to cross. It is guarded by a pack of direwolves that have made a den near the beginning of the pass. They seem to have been magically altered by someone, for what purpose I am unsure, but be warned that they won't be as easy to take down as you might expect."_ Azalea thanked him for his efforts before reporting his findings to the others.

Liam frowned in thought as he thought about what Azalea's familiar had reported. Mundane direwolves may be extinct, but the magical variation was still around, albeit an endangered species. They were moderately dangerous, and highly territorial.

Getting past them shouldn't be too difficult between them, but they still should endeavor not to underestimate the wolves. He said as much to the others, and got understanding nods all around. Isaac then decided to lighten the mood. "As if some mangy mutts can take us on! We'll breeze past them and be the first ones to get to the Academy!" Liam gave his brother an exasperated look as the others laughed agreeably.

Megan spoke up, "So, what's the game plan guys?" Azalea hummed in thought for a moment, before looking at Liam and asking "So, you said that are really good at illusions, how many sense can you manage to fool at once?"

Liam hesitated slightly, before stating "I can reliably manage two at once, three in a pinch, although they wouldn't be as good."

Azalea nodded, turning to Isaac and asking "You said you are good at stealth spells, know any scent erasing ones?" Isaac grinned smugly and exclaimed "Of course I do! I know a spell that should cover our scents with the scents of the surrounding area, camouflaging us that way."

Azalea smiled and declared "Ok, I've got a plan! Liam will cast an illusion on the wolves based on scent, sight, and hearing. They will think that a deer runs past them, hopefully getting them to chase it. Isaac will disillusion us, camouflage our scents, and silence us, and we will sneak past their territory."

The others exchanged looks, before Isaac grumbled "I was hoping to fight the wolves, not sneak past them." Azalea smirked and said "There's still a chance that the illusion doesn't fool them and they attack us anyway. Besides, this challenge is supposed to test more than just our combat skills. It is also designed to test our ingenuity, magical skill and knowledge, our improvisation skills, and various other things that they want us to be at the very least competent in."

Liam nodded in agreement, giving his brother a stern look. "She's right, we aren't supposed to just brute force our way past every obstacle. We have to show finesse as well." Isaac groaned, but gave in, making Megan giggle at him. "I'm sure we'll have to fight something eventually Isaac." She consoled him.

He grunted, but gave her a small smile. Azalea clapped her hands once decisively, exclaiming "Good! Glad that's settled. Let's get on with it then, shall we?" The others gathered their resolve and nodded firmly. The first obstacle was about to get smashed!

Azalea directed her mind outwards around them as they approached the territory of the wolves, hoping to sense them before they got detected. The others were following shortly behind her, trying to walk as lightly as possible, trying not to give themselves away to the wolves. Isaac was easily the most silent, Megan not much louder, whereas Liam and Azalea were noisy in comparison.

Still quieter than the average person walking through the woods, but not stealth/tracking specialists. Finally, she felt the press of a pack of magical predator's against her mind, and signaled them to a halt. She had never felt the mental signature of a direwolf before, but she had felt plenty of predators, and the difference between the minds of mundane and magical species was like the difference between night and day. She was reasonably sure these were they direwolves they were trying to outwit.

She directed her mind towards the vampires behind them, pressing against their minds, but not invading. In a sense, this was similar to knocking on a door, it let them know she was there and wanted to make contact, without being rude and coming in uninvited. Liam reacted first, his mind spreading out beyond his mental barriers to meet her, Isaac shortly behind. 'It is time' She sent to both of them, receiving a sense of agreement in response.

Mental speech, or as it is more commonly known as, telepathy, was a lot more complicated than most people thought. It wasn't as simple as talking without speaking, or reading someone's mind. The mind was a complicated, intricate system, it could not simply be read like a book. Instead, minds that were in contact sent and received feelings and impressions, directing them in ways to get across a concept.

For example, if someone wanted a hamburger, they would send the feeling of hunger, with an accompanying image of a hamburger. If they wanted to express that they were not an enemy, they could send feelings of warmth and affection, with an image of two people sitting on a couch next to each other.

This was the way everyone started with the mental arts, but more advanced mind mages could send and interpret much more complex communications. They could share memories by recreating the feelings and images they experienced in the memory, and sending it in a bundle of thought. Similarly, they could receive bundles of thought, and unravel them to interpret the message or memory.

Really advanced mind mages could delve into the minds of other people and insert bundles of thought to manipulate them. Things such as a fake memory of their boyfriend/girlfriend cheating on them to break up their relationship, fake memories of their friends plotting to betray them, all kinds of thing were possible with this technique. Master mind mages were infamous for being able to rewrite entire personalities this way, as seen in the famous Frank incident.

In this incident, a bored Ancient, who had become a Master mind mage over her life, decided to experiment with this concept. She began to kidnap random male mages, and experiment with rewriting their personalities, to make them her willing slaves.

She named them all Frank, and when one died, she would go kidnap another male mage, and do it all over again. Her most famous achievement was when she entirely rewrote the personality of a 48 year old male mage that was licensed as a mind healer, inserting only 7 bundles of thought into his mind. When she was killed by a rival vampire, he immediately killed himself for failing to protect her, even though he had been locked his cell at the time. That was how completely she had enthralled him.

This reputation was why mind mages were universally feared, only other mind mages and creatures with innate mental protection immune to this fear.

Isaac pulled out his wand, casting a series of spells on the group, disillusioning them, camouflaging their scent, silencing their footsteps and breathing, temporarily erasing their heat signature, and adding an attention aversion ward to be safe. Liam brought his expertise into play next, weaving an intricate illusion of a deer that ensnared sight, scent, and hearing, casting it on the clearing the wolves were resting in.

The illusion deer pranced past the wolves, instantly gaining their full attention, as they darted after it determined to have a good dinner that night. The group waited a moment, and then began sneaking past the clearing, hoping the illusion lasted long enough.

Thankfully, it lasted, as they emerged in another clearing a few miles further up the mountain. Isaac dispelled his stealth spells, and Azalea and the vampires laughed as Megan slumped against a tree, out of breath.

She glared at them half-heartedly, muttering about super-human creatures under her breath, only succeeding in making them laugh harder. Azalea smile happily exclaiming "Hah! My plan worked! Take that, you stupid wolves!" Liam rolled his eyes at her, while Isaac pouted, crossing his arms and complaining "I was hoping it would fail so we could fight them."

Azalea smirked smugly, "My plans never fail!" She declared, with her nose exaggeratedly high in the air, and a mock condescending expression on her face. Isaac startled into laughter, while Liam scoffed and disdained "One plan succeeding out of a total of one plan tried is hardly indicative of your brains, bigshot."

Azalea sneered playfully and countered "More of my plans have worked than your plans." Liam mock scowled and exclaimed "I haven't made any plans!" Azalea smirked in victory and declared "Exactly."

Isaac busted up laughing at this, while Megan giggled as best she could while gasping for breath. "She's got you there, brother!" Isaac jeered. "Shut up, Isaac." Liam deadpanned, glaring at Azalea half-heartedly.

Night was beginning to set in, so they began setting up their camp, bantering playfully the entire time, filling the clearing with the sounds of their merriment. They settled into bed late eagerly, anticipation of the remaining obstacle filling their minds.

They remained ignorant of the glowing red eyes, prowling a few dozen feet from their camp. The direwolves were not quite vanquished, and they were angry at these intruders of their territory. So, they waited patiently for their prey to fall asleep, watching all the while with hungry gazes. For they were the Pack, and their prey never escaped.

Never.

 **So, what did you think? I know people have been asking for longer chapters, and I do plan to deliver those. However, since it has been so long since an upload, I decided to release this one a little shorter than planned, so you guys know I'm not dead XD Hope you enjoyed!**


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